Alice in Wonderland
recalls the boat trip that inspired Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.]] recalls the chess theme in Through the Looking-Glass.]] 'Alice in Wonderland' is the common way of referring to either the first or both of Lewis Carroll's Alice books. This alternative title has been popularized by numerous stage, film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years, many of which combine elements from both books. Some printings with this title do, in fact, contain both ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). Motifs from both books were employed in contriving the long dream sequence that comprises the bulk of the Season Two episode, "Curiouser and Curiouser", in which Nick Knight falls asleep and dreams that he is in a world where many attributes of his life are mysteriously reversed. Not only does the dream motif mimic the conclusion of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the reversals of character mimic the mirror themes in Through the Looking-Glass, but numerous props with Alice connections were used to dress the sets for the episode. For details of the Alice motifs employed in this episode, please see the article, Lewis Carroll connections in Curiouser and Curiouser. ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland On 4 July 1862, Charles Dodgson and a friend, the Rev. Robinson Duckworth, went on a rowing trip up the Thames with the three young daughters of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christchurch College, at Oxford University, where Dodgson was employed. On the way, Dodgson entertained the children by telling them a story. This he subsequently wrote up in manuscript; and an expanded and revised version was published professionally in 1865. The opening and closing scenes are reminiscent of the summer boating trip that inspired the story. At the beginning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), the heroine is bored with sitting on the riverbank with her sister, who is reading a book. Suddenly she sees a white rabbit run past, and is struck by the fact that it is wearing a coat and looking at its watch, lamenting running late. When she follows it into a rabbit hole, she finds herself falling very slowly down a tunnel until she lands in a long hallway lined with locked doors. On a glass table, she finds a little key that opens a tiny door into a beautiful garden. The door however is too small for Alice to fit through. Looking back at the table, she sees a bottle labelled "DRINK ME" that was not there before. Unfortunately, her rapid changes in size do not provide her with a way into the garden. Instead, Alice proceeds through a series of fantastical adventures, certain only that she must get back to her right size and find the lovely garden once again. Among the curious characters she meets are a caterpillar smoking a hookah, who asks her to recite poetry, which she is unable to do without making many mistakes; an exceedingly ugly Duchess, whose Cook makes a soup which has too much pepper, causing everyone else to sneeze violently; the Duchess's baby, which turns into a pig; and a Cheshire Cat that directs her to the March Hare's house before disappearing, leaving only his grin behind to float on its own in the air. The Hare is hosting a mad tea party, which Alice joins along with the Hatter and the Dormouse; but their riddles so annoy her that she leaves in a huff. Coming upon a door in a tree, she finally finds herself back in the long hallway. This time, she is canny enough to open the door and then adjust her size until she can enter the garden. Once inside, she comes upon three living playing cards who are painting roses because the Queen of Hearts prefers red ones to white—so much so, indeed, that when she spots the gardeners' duplicity, she promptly orders them beheaded. A game of croquet then begins, with flamingos as the mallets and hedgehogs as the balls. After a brief excursion to meet the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, Alice returns to attend the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of stealing tarts (as in the nursery rhyme). The trial is a travesty; and, when Alice herself is called as a witness, she argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice declares them all to be just a pack of cards. As the entire pack descend on her in outrage, Alice wakes up. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is filled with allusions to Dodgson's friends, and parodic versions of popular contemporary children's poems. It also plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of literary nonsense. ''Through the Looking-Glass'' Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), more usually known as Alice through the Looking-Glass, is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. As the story opens, Alice is playing with a pair of kittens, pondering what the world might be like on the other side of a looking-glass (mirror). To her surprise, she discovers that, if she climbs up on the mantel, she can pass through the glass to experience the mirror world. In the reverse of the library, she discovers a book with "looking-glass poetry", which she can read only by holding it up to a mirror. Things become stranger when she leaves the house, and the flowers in the garden speak to her. There, she meets the Red Queen, who offers a throne to Alice if she is able to move to the eighth rank in a chess match. Alice is positioned as the White Queen's pawn, and begins the game by taking a train to the fourth rank, acting on the rule that pawns in chess can move two spaces on their first move. As in the previous book, Alice has a series of extraordinary adventures, which are marked by encounters with characters from nursery rhyme: Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who recite to her a long poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter"; Humpty Dumpty, who explains to her the meaning of the looking-glass poem, "Jabberwocky," before his inevitable fall from the wall; the Lion and the Unicorn; and the White Knight, who repeatedly falls off his horse. At this point, Alice reaches the eighth rank and becomes a queen. After a nonsensical catechism by her new peers, the Red and White Queens, she attends a celebratory feast in her honour—though, once she has been introduced to the food, she is not permitted to eat it. In frustration, she starts to shake the Red Queen, only to realize that she is back in the library holding one of the kittens. Although Through the Looking-Glass makes no reference to the events in the earlier book, the themes and settings make it something of a mirror image. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland began outdoors, in the early summer; it uses frequent changes in size as a plot device; and it draws on the imagery of playing cards. Through the Looking-Glass opens indoors six months later on a snowy, wintry night; it uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions as a plot device; and it draws on the imagery of chess. Where the magical world of the first book was reached by going "in" through a tunnel, the Looking-Glass World is attained by going "through". Indeed, it is particularly the themes of mirrors, reflections, and reversals that influence the Forever Knight episode, "Curiouser and Curiouser". ::Adapted from the Wikipedia articles on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass Through the looking-Glass]. Category:Historical Background